Lethargic
by papalogia
Summary: In the midst of the worst heat wave in recorded history, Cobra and Lucy spend their two-year anniversary attempting to cool off in the tub. "I thought snakes liked the heat?"


**A/N:** For Dragon'sHost, who requested a CoLu with the prompt "Is there a reason you're naked in my bed?"

Enjoy!

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It was the worst heat wave in recorded history to have ever hit Magnolia.

The city had issued a statement earlier that week demanding that everybody remain inside with the A/C turned on, and had also taken to opening shelters if families could not afford a cooling system at home, and for those without a home to find some reprieve from the merciless sun. Fairy Tail was empty, most members holed up at their residences or on jobs out of the city, and Lucy Heartfilia was one of the former.

Groaning, she rolled over on the kitchen floor and moaned in relief when her feverish skin met the cool tile. It would only be a few moments before the tiles matched her body temperature and contact would be sticky and uncomfortable, but for those few moments she reveled in the cool.

She had all but forbidden Natsu from entering her house. She adored her best friend, but he radiated heat, and she was certain she would die of a stroke if he was boiling her apartment with his presence. He had pouted but agreed, opting to ride out the wave from the comforts of his little home, where he was probably enjoying life while being impervious to the heat.

"A/C..." she wheezed, crawling on all fours to the small box on the wall in the living room, a journey that took her a good fifteen minutes to complete. She managed to pull herself up, using the wall as leverage, and pressed the down arrow.

Only to see a blank screen.

"No..." she whispered in horror.

Of all days, today would be the one her unit broke.

Lucy let out a sob, collapsing to the floor in her misery. This was how she would die. Nobody would find her body until the heat sped up decomposition and the smell became putrid enough that her landlady would come by to investigate, where she would find the blonde's decaying body on the floor, adipocere seeping-

"Okay," a deep voice came from her bed, "First off, you're getting a bit morbid. Second, adipocere starts forming after a month."

Her eyes traveled up to her bed, where she saw a tan arm dangling loosely off the edge of her bed, along with a leg. Had her face not already been flushed, she would have turned bright red as she realized he wasn't wearing clothes. His red pants, black shirt, white coat, blue cloak, and silky black boxers were tossed haphazardly in a pile, along with her blankets and pillow cases.

"Is there a reason you're naked in my bed?" Lucy asked him, not bothering to get up from her crumple on the ground

Cobra grinned. "What, you've seen me naked before, why is it bothering you now?"

"Because those times I was naked in bed with you," Lucy replied. Her boyfriend of two years managed a laugh, waving his hand limply. "Get naked and in bed, then."

"Too hot for sex," she mumbled, rolling over. "Too hot for cuddles."

"No sex and no cuddles, fine. It's been over three months since I last saw you, Bright Eyes, just get in bed."

Lucy made a big show of inching herself over, moving rather like a worm. The whole while, Cobra had propped himself up on his elbow, watching the procession with amusement dancing in his eye. It took her all of ten minutes to reach the bed, and she finally grasped the base of the furniture to pull herself up...

Only to fall back. It was too hot for her to move, too hot for her muscles to work.

"I can't," she panted, shaking her head. "Too hot, Erik. Too hot."

His hand patted around the edge of the bed, looking for hers, so she willed herself to reach up and touch his. Immediately, he grabbed the appendage and pulled harshly, tugging her up. She rose reluctantly, heaving herself up till her torso was on the bed. Between his insistent pulls and her forcing her legs to propel her upwards, she managed to roll in next to him, gasping for air. "Too hot...too much work...too hot..."

"Got you in bed," he muttered, "Problem is, you still got clothes on."

It was with no shame that Lucy reached behind her to snap off her bra, tossing it to the side. She shimmied out of her lacy panties, letting it join its brethren on the floor. On top of her boyfriend already having seen her body bare as the day she was born, it was too hot to care. Had Natsu shown up, she would have done the exact same thing.

"I would certainly hope not. Salafuck's already seen too much of your body," Cobra said, staring at her intently. Lucy smirked. "Jealous?"

"Nope," he lied. Lucy laughed, her smirk melting to a soft smile as she stared at the tan male beside her for the first time in a quarter of a year. His indigo eye was just as piercing as ever, and his maroon hair was matted to his forehead due to the heat. His body was sweat slicked, and she noticed his earrings had been removed.

"They were gettin' uncomfy in the heat. Kinda itchy," he yawned. He jerked his thumb towards her desk. "They're on there somewhere..."

"Where's the rest of Crime Sorciere?"

"Slave driver is off with the red demon doing God knows what in her room, pink demon is with the exhibitionist and the feathery whore so they can mooch off his coldness and ice, Richard is...I don't know, probably at that cooling center downtown, speedo's probably with him, narcoleptic is with the demon barmaid," he reported. "And I'm with you."

"Thank Mavis for that, too," she mumbled.

"Missed me?"

"You read minds, you know," though it was incredibly hot, she longed for nothing more than to touch his skin, run her fingers up and down the scars on his back, gently trace the few on the front along with his powerful muscles, press her ear to his chest and listen to his beating heart...

"Souls, Bright Eyes, souls...and...I hear you," he moved closer, despite her protests, and kissed her fingers gently. A compromise. "I missed you, too."

"I thought snakes liked heat?" she teased lightly as her heart raced. Only he knew how to turn her into a puddle of goo with small gestures like that...well, evaporate her from the puddle she already was at this point would be far more accurate.

"They do, but I'm not a snake, no matter how much people insist I am...literally and figuratively," he stared at her in a contemplative manner. "I wonder how Kinana is holding up..." he mused.

"She's still not as snake-like as we think, but..." Lucy leaned in, brushing her nose with Cobra's. "She seemed quite content to curl up and nap by the pool last I saw her."

He laughed shortly. "Ah, Kina, gotta love how predictable you are..."

They lay in silence for a while. Lucy spent most of that time tracing his face, memorizing the way his cheekbones sharpened and the way his scar felt under her fingers. Cobra, in turn, kept his eye shut as he let her explore his features. One of his hands drew random patterns on her skin, eliciting a shiver from her occasionally as he danced over a ticklish or sensitive spot. Eventually, Lucy broke the silence.

"Erik, it's really hot. Should we go to one of those cooling shelters?" it seemed like a good idea. That way, they could get to a state where they could actually talk and not be too exhausted to interact at all.

"That involves a, getting out of bed, and b, getting our clothes back on. Nah, I've got a better idea. Crawl to the bathroom and fill the tub with cold water," he instructed. Lucy brightened, mustering the ability to clap her hands in glee. "A cold bath! Oh, that's perfect! Bath bombs?"

"Nothing fruity," he made her promise. Nodding, she rolled off the bed and began her slow crawl to the bathroom. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Cobra making his way to the kitchen, probably to grab some ice.

The bathroom tiles were mercifully cool as she dragged herself in. Her palms made annoyingly loud smacking noises as they suctioned on and off the floor, and her knees scraped the grooves between the tiles. She paused by the cupboard, opening it and selecting a green bath bomb that, upon sniffing, revealed itself to be aloe. Satisfied, she moved to the tub and turned on the tap, running the gushing liquid over her wrist to feel it reach a freezing point before she plugged in the stopper.

Leaning against the side of the tub as it slowly filled, Lucy felt her eyes lazily droop. She could very well take a nap right about now...tan feet entered her line of sight, and she swept her gaze up to see Cobra holding all five trays of ice she had in her freezer, along with several freezies. He stood by her side as he twisted the plastic trays, popping the ice out and into the tub, where they made little plopping noises against the water. To Lucy, it sounded like a rainy night by a waterfall, a small break from the heated summer.

"Okay, author-lady, dunk in the bomb," her fingers toyed with the little sphere, eventually lifting and dropping it into the water. A few seconds passed before the tub turned the same shade of green, and the sweet, fresh smell of aloe wafted up to her nose. With Cobra's help, she stood up and slid into the full tub, turning off the faucet and sinking into the blissfully cold water. She let out a delighted moan, feeling normal and functional for the first time in days.

Cobra stepped in behind her, sliding down and drawing her back to his chest. The water churned as they both adjusted, and Cobra procured a bright orange freezie for her, selecting a light blue on for himself.

"This is the shittiest return date ever," Cobra announced between sucks and bites of his treat.

"I dunno," Lucy smiled up at him. "You're naked, I'm naked, we're in the water eating freezies to avoid stroking out...I think this is a pretty good return date."

Cobra dropped his empty packet to the floor. "Is that sarcasm I'm detecting, Miss Heartfilia?"

"I don't know, Dokuryuu no Cobra," she responded cheekily as he raised an eyebrow. "What? You don't have a last name, I'm improvising!"

"You're terrible," he announced, sweeping down to cover her lips before she could protest. This kiss had all the energy and haze of a lazy Sunday, no tongues darting out to plunder mouths, no sucking at lips with a bruising intensity, no nipping and possessive biting. This was just slow movements, like molten lava sweeping through a town, and Lucy felt its insidious burn within her. Cobra's kisses made her feel so warm and fuzzy and-

She pulled back with a scowl. "No more kissing. Too hot."

"Fuck me," he groaned, placing his head against the edge of the tub. "Is there anything we can do?"

"Nap," she suggested, making herself more comfortable as she readied herself to do so.

"We could drown and die," he pointed out. She smacked his chest with the force of a feather. "Shut up and sleep with me."

She didn't need to look up to see the shit-eating grin on his face, so she smacked him again. "Bad Erik. Down perv."

"Love you, too, Lucy," he laughed, holding her tighter as he acquiesced to her demands.

His response was a light snore.

He rolled his eye, closing it as he let the gentle, content hum of her soul sing him to sleep. His own little lullaby.

"Happy two years, Lucy," he murmured as he drifted to dreamland, "I know they've been the best of my life."

She snuggled closer in response and he smiled.

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 **A/N:** Happy reading! I needed some fluff, so here you go!

-Touko


End file.
